This morning on the way to work, Jackie and I could tell something wasn’t right as we passed through Clapham. There was a queue of cars right up Clapham High Street, when at 8.15 in mid-August, traffic should be travelling quite smoothly. We were passed by a Police car with flashing lights, and at Clapham North Station the Police were starting to close the road. There had been an accident at the junction of the A3 Clapham Road with Union Road. The police had closed everything off and directed all traffic down Mayflower Road. The back streets were jammed solid and it took several minutes to cut through back streets to get back onto the A3 at Stockwell.
Later at work I was talking to an ex-boss of mine and I asked him what had happened. He lives right where the accident occurred, and I know I would only be getting up at that time in the morning! He said it looked nasty. A cyclist under a lorry. I hope it wasn’t as bad as he said it looked. I have seen accidents at that junction before. Cyclists carry on when the lights change and get hit by vehicles coming out of Union Road. I have seen cyclists hit that way, fortunately each time they picked themselves up and were able to cycle on. This time it was worse, but I hope the cyclist wasn’t at fault.
On the way home I was travelling the opposite way along tha A3 at Roehampton Vale. I had seen a dark blue Fiesta being driven by a madman swapping lanes, tailgating and cutting between the traffic. I left him behind at the Roehampton lights, but after passing ASDA in the right-hand lane, I saw him try and overtake me on the left, he pulled very close to the van in front of him that I was slowly passing, and then, to my amazement, he started pulling into my lane. I braked and he suddenly saw me (bright lights – hi-viz clothing, bright daylight) and pulled back into his lane. I mouthed obscenities at him, but to his credit, he waved to make clear that he knew he had made a mistake. I acknowledged that (I don’t mind playing fair when cagers realise how stupid they have been) and pulled away.
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Traffic was backed up all the way through Catford and Lewisham this morning. I filtered my way to the front to see a badly smashed up bike on the pavement on its side (put there or thrown there?) and several emergency vehicles in attendance. I see a fair few bike accidents on my way to and from work and always wonder when my number will be up.
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